Tatami For Now was invented by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli (under the name Tatamibari). The puzzle is based on tatami mats, a traditional Japanese flooring; it is considered bad luck to have four tatami mats sharing a corner.

1. Divide the grid into rectangles (squares count as rectangles) along the grid lines in accordance with the following rules.2. Every piece must contain exactly one symbol (+, -, or |).3. Every piece containing a + must be square. Every piece containing a - must be wider than it is tall. Every piece containing a | must be taller than it is wide.4. No four pieces may meet at a corner.

I honestly can't think of anything to say for this puzzle, so instead I'll use this space to encourage the reader to get Firefox, and then get the Personas extension! Nothing says "I'm a blogger who cares too much about customizing his browser" quite like having Mario and Luigi on one's browser. If you don't customize your browser, then you're just a square! (Or a rectangle.)

Monday Mutants is a series in which I will attempt to experiment with "mutant" puzzles. These could be existing puzzle types with an unusual change in the rules, hybrids combining elements from multiple puzzle types, or puzzle types neither invented nor popularized by Nikoli.
In this Pearls of Wisdom puzzle, you must assemble the grid from the given pieces before you can solve the puzzle. None of the pieces may be rotated, and no two pieces may overlap; the pieces will fill the entire grid. The thick borders on the pieces must coincide with the perimeter of the grid. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

Can you guess what year I made this puzzle in? Here are three hints:a) The year is very cleverly concealed in the puzzle.b) It's the same year that motris created this puzzle (which, incidentally, is quite a bit more difficult than this one, and possibly more interesting).c) I threw this puzzle together 10 minutes ago, inspired by motris's creation above.

I would like to take this time to shamelessly promote my Monday Mutants series, a weekly series I've just begun which will be more experimental in nature than my usual puzzles. You may like the change of pace -- or you may find them convoluted and uninteresting (although I'll try as much as possible to avoid that!). Famed Sudoku master Thomas Snyder, who got a preview of some of my Monday Mutant puzzles before the series officially launched on this blog, took the time to promote the series on his own blog, so you know it must be good. :)

Monday Mutants is a series in which I will attempt to experiment with "mutant" puzzles. These could be existing puzzle types with an unusual change in the rules, hybrids combining elements from multiple puzzle types, or puzzle types neither invented nor popularized by Nikoli.
In this Polyominous puzzle, there are no given numbers; instead, there are inequality signs in the grid. Each inequality sign must point from a larger polyomino to a smaller one. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

The deadline for Attack of the Four Puzzles II! has now passed. I received 27 entries, 24 of which contained the correct answer, which can be seen here. (To avoid depriving readers of the chance to solve the puzzles themselves -- even though the contest is over -- I have chosen to link to the image rather than embed it.)

I have numbered the correct entries from 1 through 24, and used random.org to select the winner. The winner is. . . Marcin Mucha! An email has been sent to Marcin Mucha to inform him of this. Congratulations, and many thanks to all who entered!

More detailed results (which include spoilers) can be found in a comment I've made on this post.

Support me on Patreon!

If you enjoy my weekly word puzzles, please consider supporting me monthly on Patreon. You'll get sneak peeks at this blog's puzzles, and exclusive puzzles just for patrons. You can support for whatever amount per month fits your budget. Thank you!

Who's the author?

Grant Fikes has been writing logic puzzles in an amateur capacity since 2005, and in a professional capacity since 2013. He serves as the second-most prolific contributor to the blog on Grandmaster Puzzles, behind only Thomas Snyder; his works have also appeared in Akil Oyunlari, in Sudoku Xtra, the United States Puzzle Competition (2012-2014), and in a smartphone app. Grant has also created Kakuro puzzles for Kakuro Conquest (the puzzles haven't appeared yet, for whatever reason). As a budding word puzzle constructor, Grant's puzzles have appeared in the short-lived Will Shortz's Wordplay, in GAMES World of Puzzles, and in the smartphone app Bonza, and his creation Pent Words has won an award from Kadon Enterprises; as an occasional board gamer, his game Battle of LITS has been published by nestorgames and Lyris Laser Studios and is playable on BoardGameArena. On the Internet, Grant has adopted the persona of a purple and cyan fox/badger hybrid.

PLEASE DO:* commission me! I make good puzzles!* become my patron on Patreon! You'll get early access to my word puzzles!* print these puzzles out to solve them on paper* copy and paste these puzzles into your preferred image editor, and solve them there* e-mail me (glmathgrant@gmail.com; I can nudge you towards a solution if you're stuck, or interact with you in other ways)* post non-spoiler comments directly on the blog (i.e., "I like what you did with the 3's", "The logic in the upper left corner was astounding")* share these puzzles with friends and link to this blog

PLEASE DON'T:* spoil the solution in the comments section for all others to see* post completely irrelevant comments (including comments consisting completely of punctuation)* claim these puzzles as your own* make money off of these puzzles without my permission

What's that font?

Since Wordy Wednesday 72, all puzzles on this blog use the royalty-free Tinos font. Hooray for free stuff!

Who made those images?

The purple and cyan mascot on this page is my fox/badger fursona Grant Badger Fox. The blog's banner was made by PunkJax, the image of Grant holding a tip jar was made by Marquis2007, and the "Certified Puzzlemaster" badge was made by Mary Mouse.